MIT vs Berkeley (CS PhD)

[mdb]

I have been admitted to both MIT and Berkeley for PhD in CS. I'm broadly interested in databases, compbio etc. Any advice on making a choice?

Factors important to me:

- Research opportunities

- Close interaction betn prof/students

- Ties to industry/entrepreneurship

- Post-PhD job opportunities in industry/research internships

- Program flexibitliy - collaborations within and outside CS

- Location

Thanks!

MDB

[jergensultrahealing]

Berkeley has MUCH better weather...

The public transportation in Boston/Cambridge is pretty smelly (especially during the summer).

[aventinus]

I'm making the exact same choice for a Chemistry PhD. I'll decide after I visit in March... Best of luck to you!

[beanbagchairs]

There are a lot of good computational biologists at Berky

[Azazel]

I'll have to make a similar decision (albeit, adding Stanford into the mix).

Are you going to visit days? For myself, I'm not making any decisions until I see each school and meet with potential advisors.

That said, here are a few bits of information I've been mulling over:

- MIT seems to have less stressful academic requirements. Only 4 course requirements, and quals is basically a research presentation! This may make it easier to get started immediately with research. See: http://www.eecs.mit....aminations.html

- Berkeley claims to have the best placement rate for academic positions (http://communism.cs....Admit_Questions)

- Everyone I've talked to has mentioned the wonderfully collaborative atmosphere at Berkeley

- Jean Yang suggests some reasons to choose MIT (http://jxyzabc.blogs...ool-visits.html, http://jxyzabc.blogs...cking-grad.html)

- Berkeley is close to Silicon Valley. This makes for better startup opportunities, if that matters to you.

- Berkeley weather > Boston Weather ;-)

Edited February 20, 2011 by Azazel

[shdwfeather]

Congrats on your acceptances! I just wanted to comment that in terms of industry ties, I think Berkeley > MIT, if only because of its location. Silicon Valley is home to many research labs like IBM Almaden (huge if you're interested in DB).

[mdb]

Thanks for all the advice! Berkeley does have better industry ties and weather but I've heard great stuff about collaborations at MIT, so im definitely interested. I'm also a little worried about the funding scene at UCB.

@azazel: thanks for the links! i will be at the visit days too, so maybe we'll meet up there!